黑洞社区

The 1,000-seat student section of Charles Koch Arena will light up during the men鈥檚 basketball game Saturday, Feb. 18, courtesy of a new app developed at Wichita State.

The app, called People Pixel, creates an animation display on smartphones and tablets held by fans in an arena or stadium. Participants launch the app, enter their seat information and hold out their phone to display images and animations.

It鈥檚 an electronic version of when fans hold up coordinated signs, sometimes called a card trick, at an event.

The app will be tested in the student section during the video before the start of Saturday鈥檚 game. Plans are for the entire arena to have access to the app during the Tuesday, Feb. 21, Shocker game against Evansville.

James Steck, aerospace engineering professor, and Kenton Hansen, software director for Ennovar, developed the app in collaboration with the National Institute for Aviation Research and Reginald McIntyre at Shocker Athletics.

With the app, Hansen says, there will be the ability to get the whole arena blinking in alternating Shocker colors, do row and section 鈥渨aves鈥� and include graphic image animation.

The long-term goal is to make the concept ready for commercialization to other arenas, including concerts and sporting events such as the first- and second-round games of the NCAA Men鈥檚 Basketball Championship next year at Intrust Bank Arena.